Question: Why do you keep harping on this Netanel, we have to put everything somewhere!

Answer: Easy — I’m Jewish, I’m Israeli, I’m a cataloger, and it matters. It matters because the equation of these two distinct identities in the national (and international) sphere has incredibly potent and serious ramifications for war, peace, land, and money. Codifying this false equivalence into the LCC scheme, while not as widely used as DDC, then spreads the idea into every library in the world that uses LCC. I’m not trying to be overdramatic (though perhaps I am) — but the way we define our bibliographical (and non biblio) resources, what we collocate, tells our users (and reaffirms to ourselves) the way we think the world “is” and perhaps the way it “ought to be”.

So I harp.

Alright, so let’s talk about antisemitism in LCC. I’ve lived in the United States for nearly my entire life, and the US has a rich history of antisemitism, so let’s see where we’ll find those resources.

E184.3-E184.37 is the range for United States—Elements in the population—Jews

Putting aside the “Elements in the population aspect”, that’s a pretty reasonable place to look for anything that might have to do with the experiences, conditions, accomplishments and treatment of Jews in the United States. Indeed, you’ll find subdivisions broken down by period and then a section of Special topics, A-Z which includes:

That’s right, all antisemitism is collocated under Israel (Palestine). The Jews rather than being placed with the country in which the antisemitism is happening, despite the fact that it’s subdivided by country!

LCC has enough of an understanding that the experiences of Jews can differ widely from country to country that each country has a cutter given to them in the “Elements in the population” section. [Edit — this is incorrect please see this post for more] The United States, LC’s fav country, even provides numerous sub-topics of Jewish lives. So if you want to discuss antisemitism in that country, why are we being sent to the DSs if not for the idea that there is a Jewish whole (which is equivalent to the State of Israel) under which all topics can be indexed.